Wise Acres Winery » Merlot

Pressing

gardner — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:56:16 +0000

Well this took a long time to post. Our pressing day was fun, long and almost didn’t happen. The first problem was that the press was awfully small for our volumes, the second problem was that the press bleed valve would not close on the bladder press. We also believe that the pressure gauge was [...]

Bottled 2006 Merlot

gardner — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:00:54 +0000

Chuck and I bottled about 15 gallons of Merlot in the morning before pressing. We ended up with 6 cases, 9 bottles and [...]

2006 Merlot

gardner — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:00:04 +0000

I just got the rep-bottling lab results on the 2006 Merlot:

Free SO2: 17 mg/L Total SO2: 33 mg/L

I added another 2g to bring it up to a target of 40 mg/L

Oh and I racked it into the beer keg, ready [...]

Final Fermentation Data Chart

gardner — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:59:26 +0000

Everything is registering 0 Brix. I hope waiting until next Sunday to press isn’t too long of an extended maceration. Here is the final [...]

Fermentation Chart Update

gardner — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:37:01 +0000

The Cabernet is still winning, with Merlot second and Syrah a distant third.

2007 Fermentation Status

gardner — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:45:47 +0000

Things are roiling away, lots of CO2 and great smells. I am tracking temperature and Brix. The Cabernet continues to be the most vigorous. Click on the thumbnail to see a confusing chart. I am going to try to improve it as time permits. We should see temperatures go up correlated to sugar dropping, then sugar [...]

More SO2

gardner — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:03:59 +0000

While checking my pants pockets before laundering I discovered a 5g packet of SO2. Oops, that was supposed to go into the 2007 Syrah must with the other 5g packet. So I added it.

I also added 2 grams of EPMS (Effervescent Potassium Metabisulfite) (1g of true SO2) to the 2006 PMR and 2006 “Gardner’s Block” Cabernet.

Plus [...]

Pitched Yeast

gardner — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:02:26 +0000

I made 100ºF slurries for all the yeast cultures and various additives as listed after the jump and pitch the yeast in all three batches on 10/4/07 at 3:00 PM. As of this morning all te cultures were cooking along, the cabernet being the most robust. I punched down once this morning and will continue three [...]

2006 Cabernet Vinquiry Lab Results

gardner — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:16:27 +0000

2006 PMR Cabernet

3.79

Titratable Acidity

0.695

g/100mL

Free SO2

Total SO2

Glucose + Fructose

163

mg/100mL

Malic Acid

mg/100mL

Volatile Acidity

0.106

g/100mL

2006 “Gardner’s Block” Cabernet

3.84

Titratable Acidity

0.624

g/100mL

Free SO2

Total SO2

Using Dry Ice to Cool Must

gardner — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:50:15 +0000

We added dry ice to the must to cold soak it at a temperature at lease 50ºF. Here are the cooling numbers:

Merlot

Cabernet

G&M Syrah

10/1/07 2:00 PM

10/1/07 6:00 PM

10/2/07 1:45 PM

Hopefully we can keep it cool. The garage gets up [...]